After a five-week hiatus, LAist is back to taking you on its weekly trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line.I’ve always had a certain fascination with crepes. Not sure exactly why, perhaps it’s the simple elegance that a crepe has, its delicate buckwheat consistency and taste that can be deliciously served with virtually any kind of filling, whether sweet or savory. All I know is that when I pass a crepe stand or shop, I almost immediately get suckered into buying one, kinda like that dreaded hot dog and onion stand outside of ball games.
La Galette Creperie in San Clemente not only serves delectable crepes, but gives you the added bonus of being a wonderful little sidewalk cafe (which if you’ve read my other reviews, you know I’m a big fan of). It’s situated immediately adjacent to San Clemente Pier, so you can sit out in front and sip your coffee while watching surfers come in from their morning runs and people walking their dogs. It also has about ten tables of inside seating.
The restaurant is essentially a breakfast/lunch spot. The menu primarily consists of crepes, divided between sweet and savory, although different types of egg scrambles are also offered. However, unlike a crepe stand, La Galette Creperie uses fresh, gourmet ingredients to create tantalizing combinations. For example, on the savory side, fillings include ham, swiss cheese, and béchamel sauce (Croque Monsieur); smoked salmon with crème fraiche and red onion (Sunday Brunch); and chicken with apples, gorgonzola cheese, and hazelnut dressing (Chicken Fuji). The sweet side of the menu has favorites like Nutella and Dulce de Leche, but also inventive treats like the Campfire (chocolate, marshmallow cream, and crumbled graham crackers) and Strawberry Shortcake (homemade shortcake, strawberries, and vanilla sauce).When I made my trip, I was a little overwhelmed with all of the options. I settled on the Chicken Apple Sausage Scramble crepe, which was filled with the sausage, as well as scrambled eggs, rosemary potatoes, sautéed onions, and Monterey Jack cheese, and topped with a white sauce. The filling was pretty generous so that it felt like I was getting a scramble that just happened to be surrounded by a crepe, as opposed to being predominately crepe without much on the inside. The eggs were light and fluffy, while the sausage added plenty of flavor but not a lot of density. On the flip side, the sauce added an appropriate level of richness with the cheese, giving the dish a nice balance: robust and filling, but not too heavy.
In fact, it was light enough that I couldn’t resist ordering up a second crepe, this time a dessert crepe to cleanse the palate. My server had already brought out the check, but I figured I had nowhere to be and more room in my stomach to eat. And I wasn’t disappointed. I opted for the Berries and Cream crepe, a slightly less sweet option so I could justify to myself that I ate fruit with the meal. It was a relatively simple crepe, full of fresh strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries alongside a healthy portion of whipped cream. It was an amazing example of how good food can be when you just let the natural flavors speak for themselves, rather than needlessly complicating a dish by introducing more complex ingredients. The sweetness and slight tartness of the berries, mixed with the cream and the texture of the crepe was spot on.
The food alone makes La Galette Creperie worth a visit, but it’s the idyllic setting that makes it truly memorable. San Clemente is known for being roughly equidistant between Los Angeles and San Diego, which means it’s way out of the way for most people. But it’s also known as one of the last true beach communities in Southern California, personified by laid-back lifestyles and the absence of significant commercial development. Each of the beaches is semi-secluded, allowing for small shops and fewer visitors. As such, soaking in the sea breeze while chowing down on some great crepes truly gives one a feeling of escape. If only life could always be this simple.
La Galette Creperie
612 Ave. Victoria, Suite E
San Clemente, CA 92672
Photos from La Galette Creperie's website, since my camera crapped out on me
During the go-go, greed is good ‘80s, 
Strangely, I’m OK with it.
You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life. And UCLA football under Karl Dorrell.
What made the defense even more effective was the Bruins’ efficiency on offense. The Bruins kept the defense off the field by churning up first downs and burning the clock with a balanced attack (183 yards rushing/190 yards passing). Not surprisingly, the offense was effective with Pat Cowan back under center, despite being hobbled by a torn MCL. For whatever reason, the offense as a whole seems to play better when Cowan is playing QB as opposed to Ben Olson, and I’ll say it again, he should be the starter from here on out if he can stay healthy. Cowan made good decisions and reads, and protected the ball (save for a botched handoff). While his accuracy was unpredictable and his throws to the outside looked like ducks waiting to be picked off, his understanding of the game compensated for his physical shortcomings by putting the ball where it needed to be and avoiding risky plays. The receivers took advantage of Cal’s suspect secondary, getting separation from the DBs for a change giving Cowan opportunities to throw. Brandon Breazell, as he has been all year, was the man, catching balls, running end-arounds, and throwing touchdown passes (more on that later). And Pat’s brother Joe Cowan made several plays in critical situations. The offensive line turned in perhaps its best performance of the season, winning the battle upfront to create running lanes for Kahlil Bell, but also providing solid pass protection, giving Pat more time to throw than the quarterbacks have had in recent weeks. Bell, of course, continued to anchor of the offense. With Chris Markey effectively sidelined with a turf toe injury, Bell wore down the Cal defense, gaining 142 big yards.
I’ve ripped on the coaching staff for not getting players ready to play and for highly suspect playcalling, but this week, they earned their money. DeWayne Walker had his defense up for the challenge this week. As Verner said about his interception after the game, he was able to jump Jackson’s out route because he identified what play was coming pre-snap; a great individual play, no doubt, but also attributable to excellent preparation. Walker also made some great halftime adjustments to slow down Cal’s passing attack by featuring more blitz packages to disrupt the timing of QB Nate Longshore and his gimpy ankle. Offensive coordinator Jay Norvell showed a little more imagination this week, running the aforementioned Breazell end-arounds to set up the beautiful end-around pass from Breazell to Dominique Johnson. Norvell dialed up more middle screens as well, capitalizing on Cal’s overaggressive defense, and helping keep UCLA in more manageable third-down situations. It was in direct contrast to the playcalling of Jeff Tedford, the guy whose supposed coaching abilities are lusted after by many Bruin fans. He was extraordinarly conservative, particularly in the second half. I’m used to seeing the run-run-pass offense from UCLA, but to see Cal not getting the ball into the hands of its playmakers was strange. Even though Cal was having some success in third-and-long situations, it made the Bears’ offense entirely predictable, culminating in the pivotal interception when it was the Bruins that were on the ropes. For once, it was the Bruins that were the aggressor, well, relatively speaking.
The menu is pretty standard fare, with all types of fried seafood, as well as crab, mussels, oysters, and clams. Traditional Cajun dishes like etouffee, jambalaya, and gumbo are available as well. However, given that these restaurants are known for their crawfish boils, I had to oblige (though Claws only serves crawfish from NorCal and not Louisiana). After having had fresh stone crabs in Miami last weekend, eating crawfish was kind of like downgrading from a Ruth’s Chris filet to a Norm’s T-Bone steak and eggs. Still, there’s always something primitively enjoyable about reaching your hand into that plastic bag, pulling apart those little crawfish and gnawing at the innards. Suck the head, eat the tail, right? I ordered a pound, spicy, with Claws’ cannonball flavor (a mixture of Cajun, garlic butter, and lemon pepper seasoning). The spices were robust, and after about three crawfish, all I could feel was burn, and occasionally garlic. But the spice mix was tasty, and even today I’m getting hungry smelling the remaining residue on my fingers that I haven’t been able to get rid of overnight. As far as the crawfish meat was concerned, the choice tail pieces had the familiar crustacean taste, though prying them open killed my fingers. I even went all out and sucked up the body meat, with the uncomfortable combination of chewy, liquidy, and crunchy comprising the various textures of the body and organs, and that unmistakable flavor (for lack of a better word) of those components. And anytime I my taste buds got too overwhelmed, I had my trusty friend Sam Adams there to give me a hand.
I also ordered the gumbo, which was a perfectly good pot of shrimp, andouille sausage, mussels, and fish mixed in a brown roux with okra, celery, bell peppers, and onions. After some Wikipedia research, I determined that the inclusion of tomatoes in the roux made it more Creole-style than Cajun-style. Either way, I’ll gladly have me some more of it. You have the option for with or without rice, but interestingly enough, the rice was mixed into the gumbo like a jambalaya as opposed to served on top of rice.
If you happen to hurry down there this weekend, Claws is finishing its grand-opening promotion which features 20% off your ticket, free soda, and $2 domestic beers (please remember to drink responsibly, drinking six beers is still not going to put out that fire on your tongue). And they even hooked me up with a little portion of coconut jello for dessert.
As I mentioned before, one does not go to cafes for the food, one goes to eat. On this particular night, I opted for the tan chai porridge, fish fillet on rice satay, and a red bean milkshake. The porridge was primarily a seafood congee, with shrimp, squid, and jellyfish, but topped with sliced peanuts, fried wontons, and scallions, sort of a strange combination of flavors and textures. It’s a huge bowl, and I really wasn’t in the mood to eat that much, especially given how bland congee tends to be. On the other hand, the fish fillet had a lot more flavor, served with sliced onions in a not-too-spicy brown sauce. Served on a bed of rice, it was simple, but easy on the stomach after a long night. This would be a dish that I would be OK with ordering for dinner as well. And of course I had to balance the sweet and the savory, made all the easier since I’m a sucker for milkshakes. The red bean milkshake was essentially a surprisingly good vanilla milkshake with scoops of red beans mixed in (not completely blended). Adding the red bean diluted some of the sweetness while adding some textural contrast, but not so much that it stopped being a beverage. Definitely yummy.
It was my mom’s birthday this weekend and we got to spend a nice dinner together just talking and enjoying each other’s company. Moms are great in that they’ll always be your biggest fan no matter how much you screw up or disappoint them (and I’ve certainly had my fair share of screw-ups and disappointments).
Certainly, the excuse can be made that injuries cost the Bruins the game (or as Karl alluded to in his post-game interview, the team is “snakebit”). Starting QB Ben Olson injured his knee on a sack in the first quarter, and with backup Patrick Cowan also sidelined with a knee injury, the burden fell on walk-on freshman McLeod Bethel-Thompson to lead the team. Let’s just say he brought new meaning to the term ‘deer in headlights’, as evidenced by the five turnovers and four sacks he gave up (the lack of blocking definitely didn’t help). I love the story of the movie Rudy, but dude never had to be in position to win a game on national TV with the ball in his hands for three-plus quarters. Poor McLeod did as much as a kid with his level of experience and talent could do, but he clearly wasn’t ready.
And that last point is the glaring takeaway from this game: the coaching staff is either not flexible enough or not smart enough to make changes, either to the entire offensive system, or to specific gameplans during the game. For five seasons, Dorrell has attempted to implement his West Coast offense philosophy with mixed success (national ranking in scoring: ’03-100, ’04-29, ’05-5, ’06-64, ’07-57), rigidly sticking to it despite having very different personnel during those years. Over the last couple of seasons when the offense has been mediocre at best, it’s been obvious that Olson is far more comfortable taking deep drops and throwing downfield, while Cowan is better suited to quick reads and short and intermediate routes. But the gameplans haven’t been adjusted to play to those specifc strengths.
I’m sure McLeod feels terrible because his poor play led to the Bruins losing the game. But in reality, the coaching staff did not put him in position to be successful, it put him in a position to make mistakes. That is what is most disheartening about the loss. Unlike the Utah game, which was far more embarrassing in terms of lack of effort on the field, this loss wasn’t about players not showing up to play as much as it was an inability for Dorrell and staff to give them the best opportunity to win. And that’s a shame for these kids that generally work hard and represent the types of student-athletes we can be proud of. On a night where the defense played strong, neutralizing the punchless Notre Dame offense (140 total yards and only three points allowed that weren’t the direct result of turnovers), there should be no reason why they look up at the scoreboard and see a 14-point defeat and watch the humiliating scene of opposing players celebrating on the Rose Bowl grass.
40-14. Sounds like an impressive UCLA road win over Oregon St., something that has not come very often during the Dorrell era. In reality, it was a comically bad display of execution by both teams, with the Bruins finally able to take advantage of the Beavers’ total ineptitude on offense and special teams.
On the positive side, the UCLA defense brought its ‘A’ game. With the Bruin offense unable to even get a first down until midway through the second quarter, Oregon St. was able to jump out to a 14-0 lead. It looked like the Utah game was happening all over again. Thankfully for Bruin fans, the Beavers offense sought to prove it could be even more inept. Unlike every other opponent this season, the Beavers didn’t try to spread the field, which allowed UCLA’s front seven to dictate the flow of the game. While Beaver running back Yvenson Bernard found some success on the ground for 125 yards, the Bruin defense held him in check after the first three drives, daring quarterback Sean Canfield to beat them. And he couldn’t. Every pass he threw was an adventure, equally likely to end up in the arms of a Bruin defender as a Beaver receiver, and there was no attempt to throw the ball down the field. Trey Brown had two picks, but there were several other near interceptions. Oregon St. only managed 107 yards total offense after the first quarter, giving the Bruins the time to chip away at the lead with the offense (and it would need a lot of time). It was clearly the most dominant performance of the season for a unit that was highly regarded before the season, but had been grossly underachieving.
From an offensive perspective, the brief fourth quarter explosion should not overshadow the fact that the Bruin offense was really bad for most of the game. Oregon St. came into the game second in the country in rushing defense, so it was not surprising that the UCLA running game wasn’t terribly effective (50 carries for 133 yards), though it gained more yards than the Beavers had allowed in their first four games combined. By sticking with Bell (despite his fumbles) and Chris Markey, the Bruin line wore down the Beaver line in the fourth quarter.
However, the passing game was out of sync again, with nearly half of Ben Olson’s yards coming on two touchdown plays to Brandon Breazell: a 69-yard slip screen and then a great 30-yard deep post. The Bruins found some success with screen passes to the running backs to capitalize on the Beavers’ aggressiveness, which had been missing from the repertoire this year. But there were no completions, besides the one touchdown, beyond about seven yards down the field. Jay Norvell tried without success to incorporate more deep sideline patterns to utilize Olson’s arm, but seemed to abandon any intermediate routes. Still, Olson played decently, quieting the pro-Patrick Cowan crowd (like me) for the time being. He appeared a little more comfortable in the pocket than his past two starts, and showed he can make some throws when given time. Furthermore, he didn’t make as many poor throws as previous starts, other than the bad interception (sadly that’s the standard these days). The problem is that with the shaky play of the offensive line and the predictability of the offense, he’s been unnecessarily under fire a lot of times throughout the season. For example, the vanilla playcalling on first down on Saturday (23 runs versus 8 passes, conservative much?) put the Bruins in a lot of second and long situations, leading to obvious passing situations where Oregon St. could apply some pressure. The bottom line is that it seemed questionable whether UCLA could even score more than 14 points to complete the comeback, and that speaks volumes about how far the offense needs to go, both in schemes and execution.
The biggest difference in the game was the disparity in special teams. I touted the strength of UCLA’s special teams 
The best part of my meal was the potato pancakes that I got on the side. Accompanied by a small serving of applesauce, the pancakes were amazingly light and fluffy. Rather than a hash-brown style pancake, the potatoes were minced into batter, and it seemed that a greater portion of egg was used than I’ve seen at other places, though the taste and texture of the potato was still evident. I felt that cooking it this way enhanced the use of the applesauce as a topping.
The first thing you notice when you see the café is that there are two separate dining areas, a regular dining area on the blacktop and a specific “doggie dining area” (see photo above) on the lawn so that dogs can actually sit down and eat with their owners. What do you mean sit down and eat with their owners? I mean, Park Bench has a separate 
I was in a breakfasty mood, but needed a heavier meal, so I went for one of the specials, the behemoth Farm Breakfast. The dish is a mouthful just to describe, let alone eat, but it is essentially a skillet dish that consists of an egg scramble with onions, mushrooms, BACON, and cheddar and jack cheese. It’s served on top of a bed on sliced potatoes (which they term home fries, though they were marginally fried), and for the million-dollar twist, topped with sliced avocado. Although bad Ryan would have preferred hash-brown style potatoes for that extra layer of grease and a better contrast of textures with some additional crunch, good Ryan noted that I was getting all four food groups and several kinds of vegetables.
Park Bench Café has been run by a dog-loving husband and wife team, Mike and Christie Bartusick, for the last 19 years. When I was there, they were out casually small-talking with all of the guests, and most enjoyably for them, getting to know all of their canine customers. The restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays from Fall through late Spring.
Pathetic. Pitiful. Putrid.
The number of mistakes committed by the Bruins was staggering. Five turnovers, including some unbelievably bad interceptions by Olson that Pop Warner QBs wouldn’t even throw, led directly to 24 Utah points. Marcus Everett making the biggest offensive play of the game on a fly pattern down the sideline, then fumbling the ball through the end zone for a touchback when trying to stretch for the pylon, costing the Bruins their only scoring opportunity all afternoon. Four first quarter procedure or delay of game penalties that stymied the offense. Repeated breakdowns in the secondary allowing Utah receivers to literally walk into the end zone.
I would give a more thorough game recap, but it’s pretty simple. The Bruins sucked in every facet of the game. Except the kicking game – Kai Forbath, game ball! A 45-yard field goal and a 51-yard field goal means that hey, maybe we won’t miss Justin Medlock, recently cut by the Kansas City Chiefs. From the opening series in which Alterraun Verner got torched for a 55 yard touchdown, UCLA looked completely befuddled on both sides of the ball. The offensive line didn’t block, leading to a non-existent running game. The receivers didn’t get open, and when they did, Olson fired balls at their feet or over their heads. The defensive line not only didn’t pressure the quarterback but didn’t even stuff the run this week. The linebackers were totally ineffective, overpursuing and missing tackles. The secondary, in particular everyone not named Trey Brown, kept missing their coverage assignments. Even punter Aaron Perez refused to kick anything with more than about two seconds of hang time or longer than 30 yards. The coaching “adjustments” that were going to be made at halftime to overturn a 14-6 deficit? Try getting outscored 30-0 in the second half. And to add insult to injury (or is it injury to insult), the team’s top two linemen, Bruce Davis and Shannon Tevaga, both got hurt in the fourth quarter. Start to finish, atrocious in every conceivable way.
Ordinarily, I think it’s foolish to pull a Chicken Little and react so strongly to just one game. Unfortunately, this demoralizing scene from Salt Lake City has become too commonplace to just dismiss it as a fluke. Instead, it confirms the fear that this coaching staff simply doesn’t have what it takes to get the UCLA football program back to elite status. I said 
Before the season started, I had been joking about the state of the football program with one of my friends over IM. We were taking our shots at Dorrell while quietly holding out optimism for a good season. My friend made the ultimate insult of comparing Dorrell to loathed Bruin basketball coaching flameout Steve Lavin. While I don’t think that’s an entirely fair comparison, given how greasy and undedicated to the job Lavin was, the results have been eerily similar. Both guys had numerous embarrassing, unprecedented losses, led their teams to generally perform below expectations every year, yet somehow to did just enough to keep their jobs by surprisingly winning a couple of high profile games and having some cosmetic success (in Lavin’s case, his run of Sweet 16 appearances; in Dorrell’s case, the 2005 season and the USC win last year). But while they were allowed to keep their jobs, the programs that they ran were slowly getting run into the ground. And without a drastic move, the football program will continue to flounder.